Day 19: Applications

Today you will learn what to look out for when applying for a job, different ways of applying, and how to make your application stand out from the rest.

Summary

What Should We Pay Attention to on Applications?

When you're submitting your resumes and applications, you must cater to two audiences, the human eye and then the applicant tracking system.

• An applicant tracking system is a software application that enables electronic handling of recruitment needs. In many cases, they filter applications automatically based on given criteria such as keywords, skills, former employers, years of experience, and schools attended.
• You need to make sure you have custom resumes for each role you are interested in.

In online applications, they will give options for you to fill out the application by hand, filling in each one of the entry fields, or just uploading a resume.

• My advice is to fill out everything by hand and also upload the resume.

If they offer the option to upload a cover letter or leave a notes section for you to paste in a cover letter, you need to do so.

• Conversations have to happen before any hiring decision is made, which means that getting into conversations with people who can hire you as the prime focus of every smart job search.
• Employers look more favorably on candidates who take the extra step
• Your cover letter is going to be the thing that introduces you, puts your resume in context, and demonstrates your writing skills.
• Your job in this cover letter is to match the requirements that are for the job and explain how you have the qualifications for it.

Where Can You Apply?

There are endless websites on which to find opportunities that will help you hit your outbound goals:

• Job aggregators: essentially a search engine for open roles like Indeed, Simply Hired, LinkedIn, Zip Recruiter, Career Jet, and others.
• Job boards: websites used by employers to directly advertise their job vacancies like Crunchbase, Behance,  Remote.co, and Flex Jobs. For social impact jobs you can look at websites like 80,000 hours.org, Goodgigs.app, pcdn.global, idealist.org and escape the city.
• Career Pages: specific opportunities listed on company websites
• Job Fairs: a physical meetup of several companies with open roles

Why Go Through the Application Process?

We're respecting the process employers have created and showing we can follow the rules.

We're trying to increase our chances of getting our resume seen by hiring managers.

‍How to Apply for a Job

In the activity below you will complete the follow steps:

• Identify & Research Who You Are Applying To
• Craft Your Resume
• Create a Cover Letter
• Apply
• Follow-Up
• Asking others for referrals

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Activity

Download today's worksheet and complete the exercises inside of the worksheet.

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Skill Lesson Mastered

Demonstrate mastery of the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson by applying it to the above activity. If, and only if, you have a full understanding and have mastered the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson, select the next lesson in the navigation.